Top Ten FAQs about Choosing Sonlight

The "secret" about Sonlight Curriculum really comes down to our philosophy of education. We believe most children respond more positively to great literature than they do to textbooks. Stories captivate young minds. Once a good book grabs your child's attention, you'll find the educational process becomes relatively painless--because your child will actually want to read!

Many of our customers have stories almost identical to Janice's. She wrote to tell us, "I first started Sonlight two years ago because I thought that exposure to LOTS of books would help my daughter who hated to read, and really had a hard time at it. Now, two years later, my daughter tells me her favorite subject is reading!"

Because of our strong belief in the ability of great literature to interest and educate children, we founded our curriculum on quality books that present content in a highly engaging fashion.

Over the years, our customers have told us what they think makes Sonlight^® great. See if what they've told us makes sense for you, too.

1. Sonlight^® is chock-full of great books that make learning a wonderful adventure. Sonlight^® books are chosen not merely for their academic value, but for their value as important additions to your personal family library. These are books that will not just educate, but will entertain and inspire... both your kids and you!
2. Sonlight's literature base makes history "come alive," thus making it memorable, exciting, and easy to learn. With a literature-based program, "you are there" to hear and see and experience the reality that textbooks only hint at. And you don't forget what you have experienced!
3. We've done the bulk of the work for you: we've located the best literature on the market, and coordinated and scheduled it to form a well-rounded, reasonably-paced curriculum.

Learn more about the Sonlight Difference.

Many traditional schools — and at least one popular homeschool curriculum provider — boast that their curricula have "no gaps." They imply that the students who use their curricula will acquire "complete" educations, as it were, with no missing pieces.

We find this claim puzzling because we wonder how any child can be taught "everything" there is to know by the youthful age of 17 or 18.

Furthermore, we consulted several standard scope-and-sequences when we first began to develop Sonlight^®, and we quickly realized that no two curricula completely agree when it comes to "what our children ought to know." Even those curricula that claim to have "no gaps" have differences between them!

And so we decided we could not create a curriculum with "no gaps" and, therefore, we would not worry overly much if our scope-and-sequence failed to match exactly the scope-and-sequence of any particular traditional school. Rather, we decided we would seek to meet the needs of evangelical Christians who want their children to grow up loving to learn.

We figure the most important thing we can do is to instill in children a sincere love for learning. That way, students will continue learning — because they want to continue learning — even after they've completed their formal "school" educations.

And later, they can pick up whatever information they happened to miss during their school years. Far better to lack a few facts and love to learn than to have all the "right" information and hate the learning process!

Sonlight^® was designed from the ground up to capitalize on the efficient, tutorial environment of the home.

We at Sonlight want your children to learn, but, even more important, we want them to have fun learning. And we want them to learn how to learn--how to find information and solve problems--so they're well equipped for adulthood.

Because homeschool parents are in daily, personal, one-on-one contact with their students (unlike the relationship that exists between most classroom teachers and their students), we expect that, in general, rather than using quizzes, tests and gradable worksheets, homeschool parents will evaluate the progress of their students through other means.

When you're reading a book, you'll likely discuss it with your son or daughter: "Why do you think he wanted to do that?" "What does ____ mean?"

If your child is able to answer your questions, you know exactly how much s/he understands--or how much s/he fails to understand.

And you and your child enjoy a mutually satisfying conversation to boot!

Over the years, we've added more formal means for you to evaluate your children's progress and to give them the focusing benefit of tests and quizzes. Still, our evaluation methods are generally less formal--and certainly a lot simpler--than you would find in a classroom-oriented program.

We are convinced our tools will give you all the information you need and your children all the practice they require.

Sonlight^® Instructor's Guides are written to speak to you personally--like a friend ready to help when needed. You'll find no formal or stodgy "educationese" in our guides. Instead you'll find a knowledgeable companion who talks your language, speaks to your concerns, and offers suggestions based on experience. No heavy-handed statements about "the" right way for you to teach your kids. Just a friend.

Though we are convinced that homeschoolers need not spend anywhere near as much time in formal educational activities as children in classroom settings, we also believe that we parents have a responsibility before God to help our children acquire the maximum knowledge possible while they are under our care and have the time.

That's why Sonlight^® makes lots of suggestions... about reading assignments, reports a student might write, subjects s/he might study, languages s/he might learn, skills s/he might want to develop, and so forth.

We have tried to design a program that will challenge even the brightest student, and one who has more time on his hands than you can imagine: the only child living at home in a country where there are no extracurricular activities available to him and no entertainment options such as those most of us in the United States might enjoy.

We have wanted to make sure that even that student feels properly challenged, and his mom or dad will be suitably prepared to meet his needs.

One person suggested--and many others have agreed--that Sonlight^® is like an elaborate Thanksgiving feast. The banquet table groans with culinary delights, and no one expects you to sample "some of everything." Indeed, even if you wanted to, there are far too many dishes on the table for you to try such a feat.

And so most parents pick and choose among the Sonlight^® assignments.

Almost everyone does all the readings, but many will ignore the comprehension questions. Or they will skip Science in the early years. Or use a Sonlight program over the course of a year and a half or two years. Or do the Read-Alouds before bedtime, or during the summer.

Some parents, however, just can't shake the feeling that they must do every last item mentioned in the Instructor's Guide, and do it in the same order and at the same pace that the guide suggests.

If you are this kind of person; if you tend to think that, "I saw it in the Instructor's Guide, therefore I must do it," then we need to warn you: it is quite likely you might feel overwhelmed with Sonlight^®.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is the freedom to create your own schedule--one that best meets your family's needs.

Many homeschooling families choose to follow the public schools' schedule. Other families start their school year at the first of the calendar year, take time off over the summer, then continue the same course of studies in the fall. And other families spread out a Core curriculum package over one and a half or two years to give them time to focus on areas that specifically interest their children.

So, follow a schedule that works best for your family, and enjoy the adventure of learning!

Note: We do recommend that you check your state laws and requirements related to homeschooling.

We find that many families enhance their homeschooling adventure with a day of music lessons, sports, field trips, or other extra curricular activities during the school week. Other families may desire a slower paced school schedule than our standard 5-day program provides. So to meet the needs of these families, Sonlight developed the 4-day program option. We removed only the assignments that least impacted the overall foundation of the program, without losing any quality of the content. Some books were entirely removed from the schedule while others were shortened so you read a bit less. This way you have an extra weekday to do the other things that are important to you!

The 4-day program has a 144-day yearly schedule versus the 180-day yearly schedule in the 5-day program. You should check with your local education authorities to make sure you fulfill your state's requirements. Some Sonlighters spread the 4-day program over 5 days to best fit their lifestyle. That is certainly an option for you as well!

Every Sonlight Core with this option comes with both 4-day and 5-day schedules in your Instructor's Guide. You choose which will best fit your family. With the 5-day program you can always switch to the 4-day schedule if that proves to be beneficial for your family.

A couple things to note:

• For the lower elementary levels, our Grade K-2 Readers come only with a 5-day schedule because we believe children who are learning to read should practice daily. We desire for your students to learn to love to read and thus will enjoy opening a book each day.
• In our Language Arts programs, students complete 4 days of creative writing activities a week. The optional fifth day is filled with lighter, fun activities designed to develop skills through play: puzzles, palindromes, games, and more.

Sonlight^® programs are readily and easily modified to meet a broad range of academic needs. Our programs provide ready-made academic challenges for advanced students, yet average students and those with learning disabilities use Sonlight^® successfully.

Sonlight^® early elementary programs follow a modest pace. But if your child is chomping at the bit to set a faster pace, Sonlight^® will give all the challenge your child requires. Simply substitute one of the Advanced Readers programs for the Regular Readers programs.

By the time you hit Core D, Sonlight's pace has quickened noticeably, and in Core E and beyond we provide more than enough materials and outside assignments to challenge even the brightest students. Thus, for example, the content of the Core H program is easy enough for a 5th grader to understand, but the unmodified workload is worthy of a high school-level course in American History.

The bottom line: if your son or daughter is intellectually gifted, you needn't try to piece together a more challenging program.

But if your child is closer to average, is heavily involved in dance, music, or some other non-academic pursuit, or even if your child has a learning disability: you will find you can readily adjust our program to meet your needs. Simply slow the pace, ignore one or more of the assignments, or use our 4-day weekly schedule right out of the box. Sonlight's Read-Aloud components allow students of all reading abilities to enjoy more literature than they might be able to work through on their own.

Great literature (unlike most textbooks!) is appropriate for a wide range of ages. So you can absolutely teach multiple children with one Sonlight program. Learn more about teaching multiple students with Sonlight.

If you need to modify our curriculum for a younger student, simply slow the pace, ignore one or more of the assignments, or use our 4-day weekly schedule right out of the box.

If you need to modify Sonlight^® for an older student, you may substitute one of the Advanced Readers programs for the Regular Readers programs in the younger courses, or assign your student extra projects or reading.

You can peruse our catalog for more books related to the subject you are studying, or take a field trip to the library to check out books related to your subject matter. You should also expect longer writing assignments from your older student than what may be assigned in the Instructor's Guide and a deeper understanding and application of the content your child reads.

Our Sonlight^® Forums are a great place to get more tips and hints from other Sonlight families who are using our Curriculum with an older or younger student. Learn more about modifying Sonlight and combining homeschool curriculum resources.

In a word: No!

Each Core program is designed to be used with a range of ages. The Core numbers can be used to create a sequential order of study, but you certainly may study the Core programs in any order that best fits your family's needs. Bear in mind that the Core programs do tend to increase in difficulty as the levels increase.

To see which levels would be appropriate for your children, please take a look at our Relative Difficulty Chart.